1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disc apparatus that is used to reproduce information recorded on an optical disc and/or to record information on an optical disc.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, an optical disc apparatus has been used to reproduce information recorded on an optical disc such as a Blu-ray disc (hereinafter, abbreviated as BD), a digital versatile disc (hereinafter, abbreviated as DVD), a compact disc (hereinafter, abbreviated as CD), or the like and/or to record information on such an optical disc.
FIG. 6 is a schematic view for explaining a configuration example of a conventional optical disc apparatus 100. The conventional optical disc apparatus 100 includes a housing 10, a disc tray 20 that is housed in the housing 10 so that it can be pulled out to outside the housing 10 (it can be pulled out in a direction indicated by a broken line arrow) and on which an optical disc is placed, and a traverse chassis 30 that is disposed on a lower portion side of the disc tray 20 as housed in the housing 10 and moves circularly in accordance with an operation of ejecting/retracting the disc tray 20.
The disc tray 20 is provided with an unshown disc placing portion so that an optical disc can be placed thereon. Furthermore, an unshown cutout is formed at part of a bottom surface of the disc tray 20. With this cutout provided, a space for disposing a turntable (not shown) mounted to a spindle motor 31 on the traverse chassis 30 is secured. Providing this cutout also makes it possible to irradiate an information recording surface of an optical disc with laser light emitted from an optical pickup 33 on the traverse chassis 30.
FIG. 7 is a schematic plan view showing a configuration example of the traverse chassis 30 included in the conventional optical disc apparatus 100. The traverse chassis 30 has various members mounted thereto, which are required to reproduce information on an optical disc or to record information on an optical disc.
On a front side F (a side to which the disc tray 20 is pulled out is assumed to be the front) on the traverse chassis 30, there is fixed the spindle motor 31 (see FIG. 6) to which a turntable 32 for holding an optical disc is mounted. Furthermore, on the traverse chassis 30, two guide shafts 34a and 34b in a state of being supported by a support base 38 are disposed parallel to a radial direction of an optical disc (a direction parallel to a direction in which the disc tray 20 is ejected/retracted). The optical pickup 33 that optically scans over the information recording surface of an optical disc is mounted so as to be slidable along these two guide shafts 34a and 34b. 
The optical pickup 33 includes a light source (not shown) that emits laser light, objective lenses 331 and 332 that focus laser light emitted from the light source on the information recording surface of an optical disc, and a light receiving portion (not shown) that receives returned light reflected off the information recording surface and converts a light signal into an electric signal. The optical disc apparatus 100 is configured to have compatibility with BDs, DVDs, and CDs, and the optical pickup 33 is therefore provided with a BD optical system including the objective lens 331 for BDs and a DVD and CD optical system including the objective lens 332 for DVDs and CDs.
A stepping motor 35 is fixedly disposed on the traverse chassis 30, and a lead screw 36 is mounted to an output shaft of the stepping motor 35. A longitudinal direction of the lead screw 36 (a vertical direction in FIG. 7) is set to be parallel to the radial direction of an optical disc. A teeth member 37 mounted to the optical pickup 33 is engaged with the lead screw 36.
The teeth member 37 is provided with a biasing spring 37a and gear teeth 37b that are biased in a direction substantially orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the lead screw 36 by the biasing spring 37a. The gear teeth 37b in a state of being pressed against a spiral groove 36a provided on the lead screw 36 bite into the groove 36a. By this configuration, the teeth member 37 converts the rotation of the lead screw 36 caused by the stepping motor 35 into a motion in a linear direction parallel to the longitudinal direction of the lead screw 36 (the radial direction of an optical disc) and transmits the motion to the optical pickup 33.
FIGS. 8A and 8B are views for explaining an operation of the conventional optical disc apparatus 100. FIG. 8A shows a state where the disc tray 20 has been pulled out from the housing 10, and FIG. 8B shows a state where the disc tray 20 with an optical disc 40 mounted thereon is housed in the housing 10.
As shown in FIG. 8A, when the disc tray 20 is pulled out for placing the optical disc 40 thereon, the traverse chassis 30 moves circularly around a back end portion B thereof such that a front end portion F thereof moves down. This circular movement is enabled by an unshown circular movement mechanism mounted to the traverse chassis 30. This circular movement mechanism is set to operate in conjunction with an ejecting/retracting mechanism that ejects/retracts the disc tray 20.
When the disc tray 20 with the optical disc 40 placed thereon is housed in the housing 10, the traverse chassis 30 moves circularly in a reverse direction to a direction in which it moves in a case where the disc tray 20 is pulled out. As a result of this, the front end portion F of the traverse chassis 30 rises from its lowered state and recovers to its original state before the pulling out of the disc tray 20 (a state shown in FIG. 8B). When the traverse chassis 30 rises, the turntable 32 comes in contact with an area of a lower surface of the optical disc 40 in the vicinity of a center thereof. The turntable 32 then rises further from that state and thereby holds the optical disc 40 in cooperation with a clamper 39 provided above the turntable 32. This allows the optical disc 40 to be rotated by the spindle motor 31.
In a case where the disc tray 20 is pulled out for taking out the optical disc 40, the turntable 32 is lowered below the disc tray 20, so that the optical disc 40 held by the turntable 32 is transferred onto the disc tray 20. The disc tray 20 in a state where this transfer has been completed is pulled out from the housing 10, and thus the optical disc 40 can be taken out.
By the way, as shown in FIG. 7, in order to secure electrical connection with a substrate outside the optical pickup 33, a flexible flat cable (FFC) 333 is attached to the optical pickup 33. The FFC 333 extends out from the optical pickup 33 toward an outer peripheral direction (this direction is expressed relative to the optical disc 40 and corresponds to a downward direction in FIG. 7).
FIG. 9 is a schematic view (a sectional view) for explaining the FFC 333 extending out from the optical pickup 33. As shown in FIG. 9, the FFC 333 extending out from the optical pickup 33 is bent in a curved state, and part thereof is disposed on a lower side of the traverse chassis 30. Since an opening 30a (see also FIG. 7) is formed at a center portion of the traverse chassis 30, the FFC 333 being bent does not interfere with the traverse chassis 30.